Kevin Williams faces a lighter NFL suspension under new labor deal

Kevin Williams, center, shown taking a break during training camp with Jared Allen, left, and Fred Evans, is now dealing with plantar fasciitis as well as a pending NFL suspension. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

Neither Kevin Williams nor the Vikings have said they ve heard anything from the NFL about his pending suspension, but sources say the penalty will be halved under the new collective bargaining agreement. (Associated Press file photo: Duane Burleson)

Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams faces a reduced suspension for testing positive for the banned diuretic StarCaps in 2008 and likely will not be punished before Minnesota opens the season Sept. 11 at San Diego, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

Four months after the courts cleared the way for the NFL to suspend Williams, former teammate Pat Williams and New Orleans defensive end Will Smith for four games, the StarCaps dispute remains an unresolved bargaining chip in negotiations between the NFL and its players association on a new drug-testing policy, the sources said.

The sides agreed to blood tests for human growth hormone in their new collective bargaining agreement, although league and union negotiators met with the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal on Tuesday to review protocol before the players decide whether to approve the policy for this season.

Negotiations are expected to extend into the season, according to a union official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are supposed to remain confidential, leaving Williams' availability to the Vikings an open question.

The NFL declined comment about the StarCaps case.

"Nothing new to report," spokesman Randall Liu said this week.

At issue for the league is how to discipline the StarCaps players under the new CBA for violating terms of the expired labor agreement.

Advertisement

Players who tested positive for banned weight-loss supplements such as StarCaps were suspended four games, the same punishment for players who were caught using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

According to the union official, the NFL and the players association would distinguish the offenses in the new policy and implement a two-tiered system of discipline - two-game suspensions for testing positive for diuretics, six games for testing positive for steroids.

Reducing Williams' and Smith's suspensions to two games would bring their punishment in line with the more nuanced policy.

"We were hoping there would be a reduction, but who knows?" Williams said Tuesday after practice at Winter Park. "I don't believe it's a done deal until it's done."

Williams has plantar fasciitis in his left foot and has not practiced since Saturday's preseason game at Seattle. He dismissed the injury and vowed he would be on the field for the Vikings' opener against the Chargers.

Coach Leslie Frazier said Monday that the team had not heard from the league about Williams' suspension or how long it would be.

"I don't want to hear anything," he joked. "If I hear something in 2020, that'll be fine with me."

In April, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied Pat Williams his final appeal by declining to review a lower-court verdict that exposed the Williamses to four-game suspensions after they unsuccessfully sued the NFL under the state's drug-testing laws.

On May 6, 2010, Hennepin County Judge Gary Larson ruled the NFL violated portions of the Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act (DATWA) when it disciplined the Williamses. However, the judge said the league's actions did not harm the Williamses enough to reap damages, nor were the players entitled to a permanent injunction barring suspension.

The Williamses appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which ruled against them earlier this year. Kevin Williams bowed out of the case at that point, but Pat Williams elected to take the fight to the state's highest court, which shut him out.

The Vikings did not re-sign Pat Williams, 38, who became a free agent this summer and wants to continue playing.

The Williamses testified during their March 2010 trial that they had used StarCaps, a diuretic with bumetanide - a controlled substance the league and the players association classify as a masking agent for steroids - to lose weight and earn $400,000 bonuses, a violation of their contracts.

The league accused the Williamses of hiding behind DATWA, which regulates how Minnesota employers inspect workers, instead of accepting punishment under the collectively bargained anti-doping policy.

The NFL argued its Policy on Anabolic Steroids and Related Substances, which was negotiated by the league and the union, provided greater protections and fairer application than Minnesota law.

But Larson ruled the league violated DATWA's three-day-notice provision. The Williamses, who were tested on July 26, 2008, did not learn about their results until late September and early October 2008.

Yet the Williamses testified that the delay did not harm them, so Larson ruled they were not entitled to damages.

The league discovered in November 2006 that StarCaps was tainted with bumetanide and opted not to punish about a dozen players who tested positive for the same banned substance as the Williamses, according to court records and testimony.

At the time, the NFL reiterated warnings to players to avoid all weight-loss supplements, which are unregulated.

But league vice president Adolpho Birch, who metes out punishment under the policy, did not specifically caution against using StarCaps, nor did he reveal to the Players Association or the Food and Drug Administration what league scientists found in StarCaps.

StarCaps was a precedent-setting case that wound its way through federal and state courts in Minnesota for two years.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined the NFL's appeal on the initial ruling that allowed the Williamses to sue the league in Hennepin County.

Other major sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL, supported the NFL because they claimed their drug-testing programs were vulnerable to lawsuits by players who failed tests in Minnesota and other states with more liberal drug-testing laws.

Smith and ex-Saints teammates Charles Grant and Deuce McAlister tested positive for the same substance but weren't involved in the Minnesota lawsuit. Grant and McAlister are out of the league. The NFL deferred enforcing Smith's four-game suspension until the Minnesota case was resolved.